All about insects 2021

Good catch. I normally see them when the mining bees are more active, but that's still a couple of weeks away yet ... unless this warm period brings them out earlier.

Did see a small light brown bee this afternoon visiting some daisy flowers right down on the ground but it kept moving away every time I tried to see detail!  19°C here today ... phew, it ain't 'arf 'ot mum!  Same tomorrow sk hoping for butterflies!

Also had bumblebee  drift in & settle on a cushion, gently removed to a flower outdoors but nearly trod on it next time I went outside, eased onto a piece of card & transported to bed of Lesser Celandine!  Hope it can survive, quite mild here tonight!

This from Wiki, hope the've got their facts straight ... en.m.wikipedia.org/.../Bombyliidae
Seen plenty in the garden Gaynor but they don't settle, lot like Hummingbird HM, always changing corse & darting away!

The Beeflies have come out here, too. Lots around this afternoon. Difficult to creep up on, though. I wanted to get one side on but couldn't

Fabulous pic Nige you did well to get such detail!

Thanks Wendy, that link is so interesting. You would think I would have come across them before as the species is 99 million years old - cor blimey, that is worth remembering!!!1

Fabulous picture Nigel, I will have to keep a look out now. A whale bee fly - whatever next.

That's a fabulously clear photo Nige, the hair detail on the beefly, is so crisp.

Spring has definitely sprung here, the bees are getting busier. I think his one may be a honeybee, but could be wrong.

Bee flies are plentiful here now (in E Dorset) too.
They are such feisty critters. I once saw one lining up behind a bee, which was lining up to land on a flower. Once happy it rammed the bee straight in the butt, and off it buzzed wondering what had just happened, while the bee fly took to the flower!

This is the teeniest flying critter I've ever seen

Could it be a moth??